The Board of Australian Made Campaign has appointed Ben Lazzaro as its New Chief Executive, effective 1 August 2018.

Mr Lazzaro joined AMCL in 2011 as Marketing & Communications Manager and was appointed Deputy Chief Executive in 2016.

He has an engineering and communications background with more than 15 years experience across a variety of management, sales, marketing and communications roles in consultancy, agency and in-house capacities.

Australian Made Campaign Chairman, Glenn Cooper, the AMCL Board said Mr Lazzaro was the logical choice to succeed retiring CEO, Ian Harrison.

“Ben has been a key contributor to the success of the organisation and the Australian Made logo for many years now,” Mr Cooper said.

“Ben’s combination of skills and experience, paired with his understanding of country of origin matters, have him ideally placed to lead the organisation into its next exciting chapter.”

Mr Lazzaro thanked the Board for giving him the opportunity to lead the organisation responsible for promoting and administering the nation’s iconic green-and-gold Australian Made, Australian Grown (AMAG) logo.

“It’s a real honour to be given the opportunity to lead this organisation and I thank the Board for that,” Mr Lazzaro said.

“While enormous progress has been made, there is opportunity for the Australian Made team to further strengthen this Australian icon, here and overseas.”

He also paid tribute to outgoing CEO Ian Harrison for establishing the Australian Made logo as Australia’s global product symbol.

“The logo has become one of the most powerful sales and marketing assets for businesses that make and grow products locally,” he said.

“It makes the Australian connection instantly, clearly and with authority, and is synonymous with quality and integrity – a truly global product symbol for our growers and manufacturers. Ian Harrison was central to achieving that and to the enormous progress of the campaign over the last 14 years.

“The challenge ahead is to build on this success, evolve the Australian Made offering and continue to deliver value to Australian manufacturers and growers, as well as consumers the world over.”